Eating Alone

Fiction | Poem | Adult

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Mindfulness & Memory

A central theme of “Eating Alone” is the connection between mindfulness and memory. The speaker of the poem is mindful in his attention to detail—he observes moments as they unfold slowly. In the first stanza, after he has pulled up the onions from the garden, the speaker pays particular attention to the ground. Due to seasonal changes, the ground is bare and the speaker describes it as “cold, brown and old” (Lines 2-3). He then notices the light coming through the trees, and his gaze continues to witness a cardinal take flight. The speaker allows himself to be an observer of the natural world, and his mindful movements reflect an air of quietness. When he washes the onions, he also takes a sip of water, noticing the coldness of the metal spigot.

This level of mindful engagement with the external world allows the speaker’s mind to access a beloved memory of his father. The environments are similar: a quiet stroll in the woods during a change of seasons. The speaker’s conscious attention to his surroundings activates his subconscious, which allows the memory to surface. He distinctly remembers the way his father’s knee bent as he picked up the rotten pear from the ground; this memory has a certain significance for the speaker because he can recall its vivid details. For example, he remembers how the hornet inside the pear “spun crazily” (Line 14) and how it glistened, covered in the pear’s juices. Such intricate recall suggests that the speaker’s relationship with his father is very important, as this moment was obviously a special one.

In the next stanza, it is revealed that the father was already on the speaker’s mind. The speaker describes how he mistakenly saw him waving in the trees. It is only when the speaker looks more closely that he realizes his mistake: it was just a shovel leaning against a tree. This detail also suggests that memory can influence observation—what happens when the eye plays a trick—and that ultimately mindful attention is also required to accurately encounter reality. Thus, the link between mindfulness and memory is apparent.

Solitude & Loneliness

Another major theme in “Eating Alone” is the speaker’s loneliness and appreciation of solitude. The title sets the tone of the poem. It introduces the aloneness of the speaker as a matter-of-fact, rather than a doleful lament. This tone continues as the poem opens: the speaker works alone in the garden. It is in his solitude that the speaker is able to observe his environment with full attention. The speaker seemingly enjoys his labor—his observations are made with a purposeful willingness—he savors each passing moment. When the cardinal flies away, the speaker is made even more aware of his own solitude. Even the animals have departed. He is totally alone.

This aloneness invokes a contemplative yearning in the speaker. He remembers a time when he walked with his father in the woods. The difference between his present solitude and the company he shared in the past becomes apparent. However, the memory he relates is also quiet and meditative. He remarks “I can’t recall / our words. We may have strolled in silence” (Lines 9-10), as he is not sure what he and his father spoke of—or even if they spoke at all. Thus, the speaker’s recollection of company is not overtly communicative or vocal. Rather, the memory reveals that the speaker values presence over conversation, suggesting that intimacy does not require verbal exchange, and instead it is a more embodied bonding. While the speaker cannot remember their words, he does recall the specific way his father bent “that way” (Line 11) with his “left hand braced / on knee” (Lines 11-12). The longing the speaker feels stems from shared experience, and from simply being in the presence of the other.

This need for shared experience is perhaps a motivating factor in the composition of the poem itself. Though the speaker asserts at the end of “Eating Alone” that he is content in his own solitude, the act of writing a poem about the satisfaction of solitude suggests its long-term insufficiency, as does the speaker’s rhetorical question “What more could I, a young man, want” (Line 23). The need to share an experience with another human being is too strong. Thus, the need is fulfilled by sharing this specific experience of eating alone with the reader.

Life vs. Death

The awareness of death and its relationship to the living is another prominent theme in “Eating Alone.” This is first represented by the shift in seasons: the impending winter causing the first “death.” As the ground is bare and cold—inhospitable to seasonal plant life—the speaker must dig up the “last of the year’s young onions” (Line 1) before they begin to whither in the ground. Though the environment is metaphorically dying, the speaker knows that the onions are a viable food source. When the speaker prepares the onions for dinner, he is revealing the essential relationship between death and life. The ground produces the onions that give sustenance to living. However, the ground cannot produce food throughout every season, so an understanding of seasonal changes (the “death” of winter) is required for human life to continue living.

Additionally, the father’s presence highlights a similar relationship. Though the poem does not explicitly say the father is dead, it is implied in the third stanza. The apparition of the speaker’s father waving at him through the trees suggests that death is the true distance between them. When the speaker is revisiting the memory of his father in the previous stanza, he remembers how his father’s knee was “creaky” (Line 12). The use of “creaky” implies the advanced age of his father and how it was necessary for him to support himself while he bent over. This detail reveals that his father was getting closer to death and contrasts with the ease of a “young man” (Line 23) working in the garden.

The speaker is aware of his own mortality throughout the poem. So much so, that he celebrates the simple event of preparing and eating a meal. In the final line, the speaker specifies that he is a “young man” (Line 23). Again, this small detail reveals the self-awareness of the speaker: he celebrates his youthful aliveness in the wake of death.